The
Peoples Democratic Party national chairman, Bamanga Tukur, retained his
seat Thursday at a crucial National Executive Committee meeting of the
party where several officials resigned and new ones emerged, with a vote
of confidence passed on President Goodluck Jonathan.
Former
House of Representatives deputy speaker, Chibudom Nwuche, emerged as
replacement for Sam Jaja, the party’s former deputy national chairman,
while Tony Okereke was named as replacement for former publicity
secretary, Olisa Metuh.
Former
aviation minister and women leader for the party, Kema Chikwe, has also
been replaced with Oyibo Nwaneri. The appointees are all in acting
capacity.
The
former exco members of the party announced their resignation shortly
before they were excused from a closed-door session of the NEC on
Thursday.
They
were “elected” through a faulty process, the Independent National
Electoral Commission said in a monitoring report in April.
Despite
coming more than two months after the report’s release, the party
insisted the resignations were in adherence of the electoral body’s
directive.
Those
affected are the deputy national chairman, acting national secretary,
national woman leader, national treasurer, and national youth leader.
All the eight deputies in the party also resigned their appointments as
well as ex-officio members from the South West also resigned their
appointments.
After stepping down, they were thanked by senate president, David Mark and Cross River state governor, Liyel Imoke.
A
special convention of the party is to hold July 15 where new elections
will be conducted to fill in the more than 16 vacant positions.
The
convention committee is headed by former information minister, Jerry
Gana, while Akwa Ibom state governor, Godswill Akpabio, will serve as
the deputy. Deputy Senate president, Ike Ekweremadu, is the secretary.
Jonathan wants two big parties
In
a speech ahead of the executive session, Mr. Jonathan said he wished
there would be “two big political parties”, one which would be the PDP.
He said the party is solid and has been helping to stabilize the
country.
The
president said he wished more opposition parties could merge. “We want a
situation where it is PDP versus one,” the president said
0 comments
Post a Comment